Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bamboo Reinforcement Concrete - Ghavami - 2004
Bamboo Reinforcement Concrete - Ghavami - 2004
www.elsevier.com/locate/cemconcomp
Department of Civil Engineering, Ponticia Universidade Catolica, PUC-Rio, Rua Marques de Sao Vicente 225, 22453-900 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Received 26 September 2003; accepted 4 June 2004
Abstract
It is a fact that the construction industry is the main consumer of energy and materials in most countries. The pursuit of sustainable development, dened in the Brundtland Report 1987 as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, has become a major issue when trying to meet the challenges in
providing proper housing for the ever-increasing world population. To increase the amount of information concerning bamboo several successful research programs have been carried out since 1979 at PUC-Rio and in Brazil. Vegetable bres can be used either
alone or as reinforcement in dierent types of matrices such as soil and cement composites. This paper presents the results of some
of the recent studies of the microstructure of bamboo as a functionally gradient material. These studies led to the establishment of
bamboos composite behaviour through the rule of mix. A concise summary regarding bamboo reinforced concrete beams, permanent shutter concrete slabs and columns is discussed. Finally, some recommendations for future studies are proposed with the hope
that the newly developed material could contribute, on a large scale, to sustainable development without harming our globe.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Bamboo; Concrete; Composites; Non-conventional materials
1. Introduction
The present energy crisis provoked by indiscriminate
industrial growth has caused increasing concerns about
managing the energy resources still available and about
environmental degradation. There is an intense on-going
search for non-polluting materials and manufacturing
processes, which require less energy. Attention of
researchers and industries has turned to materials such
as vegetable bres including bamboo, soil, wastes from
industry, mining and agriculture for engineering applications. In a global eort to nd a substitute for the
health hazardous asbestos cement new cements using
all types of wastes are being developed and used for
the production of composites, reinforced with bres.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 21 511 4497; fax: +55 21 511 1546.
E-mail address: ghavami@civ.puc-rio.br
0958-9465/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2004.06.002
In this era of industrialisation, the selection of materials is based mainly on the price and the type of facility
used for production or processing. Industrialised materials, such as ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and steel,
nd applications in all sectors and in the world to which
a road leads. In the second half of the 20th century, advanced materials such as synthetic polymers (e.g.
Rayon, Nylon, Polyester, Kevlar), new alloy metals
and carbon bres were developed. They were introduced
in places where locally produced materials exist in abundance. In developing countries due to the educational
system, which is mainly based on programs from industrialised nations, there are to date no formal education
or research programs concerning the traditional and
locally available materials and technologies. Lack of
reliable technical information about the local materials
makes the consumers use mainly industrialised materials
for which the information is freely available.
638
Fig. 1. Performance of bamboo and other materials, in relation to their E and q, [17].
Ec Ef V f Em 1 V f
639
In the application of Eq. (1) to the analysis of bamboo, the variation of the volumetric fraction of bres,
Vf(x), with thickness should be taken into account. Considering that the Vf(x) distribution follows an axis, x,
with the origin at the internal wall and the maximum
limit at the outer wall of the bamboo culm, Eq. (2)
can be written. The variation of Vf(x), was determined
using the digital image processing, DIP.
Ec f x Ef V f x Em 1 V f x
Using the DIP method, the variation of the bre volume fraction of the bamboo shell was determined for 10
culms of dierent species. For each culm, three samples
were taken from the bottom, middle and the top part of
the culm, as shown in Fig. 3(a) for bamboo Dendrocalamus giganteus (DG).
The variation, Vf(x), at the three loci of culms, is presented in Fig. 3(b). It is observed that the bre distribution is more uniform at the base than at the top or the
middle part. This phenomenon could be explained
Fig. 3. Fibre distribution across the thickness using DIP method along bamboo. (a) Location of samples for DIP along the bamboo shell length DG.
(b) Fibre distribution across bamboo thickness at base, middle and top part of DG.
640
Fig. 4. Variation of thickness and internodal length along the whole bamboo culm.
641
Fig. 5. Durability of bamboo and steel reinforcement in concrete elements. (a) Bamboo reinforcement of a tested beam exposed in open air after
15 years. (b) Steel reinforcement of a column in the tunnel of metro after 10 years in closed area.
ever shows that the combination of low alkali cementitious materials, chemical admixtures could improve
the durability of concrete reinforced with vegetable
bres [21].
A reinforcing bar in concrete is prevented from slipping by adhesion or bond between them. The main factors which aect the bond between the reinforcing bar
and concrete are: adhesive properties of the cement matrix, the compression friction forces appearing on the
surface of the reinforcing bar due to shrinkage of the
concrete and the shear resistance of concrete due to surface form and roughness of the reinforcing bar.
The dimensional changes of bamboo due to moisture
and temperature variations inuence all the three bond
characteristics severely. During the casting and curing
of concrete, reinforcing bamboo absorbs water and
expands as shown in Fig. 7(a). The swelling of bamboo
642
F
LS
Fig. 8. Pull out test of the bamboo segments. (a) Improved pull-out test; (b) Conventional pull-out test.
643
Fig. 9. Pull-out tests on untreated and treated bamboo segments. (a) 3 cm bamboo segments. (b) Test specimen before testing.
Table 1
Bonding strength of bamboo segment subjected to pull-out test
Treatment
Bond strength of
treated bamboo sb
Bond strength of
untreated bamboo
sb/sbnt
Without treatment
Negrolin + sand
Negrolin + sand + wire
Sikadur 32-Gel
Steel
0.52
0.73
0.97
2.75
3.25
1.00
1.40
1.87
5.29
6.25
Fig. 10. Bamboo reinforcing concrete beams. (a) Detail of bamboo reinforcement in beam. (b) Bamboo reinforced concrete beam test.
644
Fig. 12. Concrete slabs reinforced with bamboo permanent shutter forms (a) Schematic set up of the slab. (b) Bamboo of slab during treatment.
645
Fig. 13. Concrete slabs reinforced with bamboo permanent shutter forms. (a) Half bamboo diaphragm as connector. (b) Second type of connector.
(c) Slab before testing.
The shear resistance of whole and half bamboo diaphragms of specie DG has been studied. For the half
bamboo its shear strength has been found to be
10.89 MPa with a standard deviation of 2.56 MPa.
Although the bamboo diaphragm creates a composite
interaction between bamboo and concrete, its shear
resistance is not sucient enough to prevent its shear
failure. Most of the tested slabs had rst failed due to
de-bonding and failure of the diaphragm then followed
by concrete compression failure.
To increase the shear strength of half bamboo several
alternatives were considered. One of the simplest methods was to consider the entire bamboo diaphragm as
shown in Fig. 13(b). To improve further a strip of steel
or bamboo rod close to the bamboo diaphragm passing
through the bamboo diameter was xed. These two
methods almost doubled the shear strength of the diaphragm hence the ultimate load of the slabs. This type
of slab is now successfully used in Brazil. However, at
present, studies are being carried out to improve the
bonding between bamboo and concrete with other new
products available on the market beside the improvement of the shear connector behaviour of low cost.
3.3. Bamboo reinforced concrete columns
The structural component being developed, analysed
and tested recently is a bamboo reinforced concrete circular column with permanent shutter form as shown in
Fig. 14. The main reinforcement of this 30 cm diameter
column is made entirely of treated 30 mm wide DG bamboo segments. The bamboo was treated with a new
product, Sikadur 32-Gel, which gave a better bonding
when compared to other products previously used. As
it can be seen in Fig. 14 beside the bamboo reinforce-
646
Fig. 14. Circular bamboo reinforced concrete column with permanent shutter: (a) column reinforcement, (b) details of reinforcement and (c) nal
product.
Fig. 15. Details of rectangular concrete column reinforced with treated bamboo.
strain gauges of 30 mm length also were xed to the concrete at the middle of the columns as shown in Fig.
16(c).
The columns were tested in a steel frame of 1000 kN
capacity and were subjected to axial load as can be seen
in Fig. 16(c). The load was applied in increments of
2 kN. For each increment the strains, lateral deection
and crack initiation and propagation of concrete were
recorded. The crack, which could be observed by a mag-
647
Fig. 16. Details of rectangular concrete column reinforced with bamboo segments and the testing rig: (a) Before treatment, q = 9%; (b) after
treatment, q = 7.5%; (c) during testing, q = 7.5%.
strain and stress of the concrete, ebt and fbt are tensile
strain and stress in bamboo.
In stage 1 for a small load, the stress and strain are in
linear elastic range. The normal compression and tension stresses in a section in concrete are triangular. With
an increase of the applied load the internal stress diagram of concrete along the depth of the section becomes
non-linear until the ultimate tensile strength of the concrete is reached.
In stage 2 the bamboo at the cracked points and the
concrete between the crack, in the tension zone, resists
Fig. 17. Stress and strain distribution in an element subjected to bending at dierent stages.
648
4. Concluding remarks
Environmental concerns have broadened during the
last two decades. Initially it meant to analyse visible
catastrophes such as a dying forest or dead sh on a
shore and we slowly came to realize that any excessive
or inecient consumption of resources is in fact an
abuse of the environment.
The understanding of sustainability in building construction has also undergone changes over the years.
First attention was given to the issue of limited resources, especially energy, and how to reduce the impact
on the natural environment. Now, emphasis is placed on
more technical issues such as materials, building components, construction technologies and energy related design concepts as well on non-technical issues such as
economic and social sustainability.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank his colleagues
Professors Luis Eustaquio Moreira and Normando
Perazzo Barbosa. Special thanks to Conrado, Matilde,
Ruth, Sergio, Eduardo, Sylvia and others, who contributed in realizing the tests and theoretical analysis.
Also, the nancial support given by Brazilian nancing
agencies CAPES, FAPERJ, CNPq is appreciated. Finally special thanks to Ursula Ghavami for her patience in the organization of gures and arrangement
of the text.
References
[1] Ghavami K, Hombeeck RV. Application of bamboo as a
construction material: Part IMechanical properties and waterrepellent treatment of bamboo, Part IIBamboo reinforced
concrete beams. In: Proc of Latin American Symp on Rational
Organization of Building Applied to Low Cost Housing, CIB, Sao
Paulo, Brazil, 1981. p. 4966.
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
649
ronment, Theory into Practice Proc., Sao Paulo, Brazil, CDROM, ISBN 85-88142-01-5, Global Seven Edition, 2000. p. 116.
Dunkelberg K et al. Bamboo as a building material. Bamboo-IL
31, Institute for Lightweight Structures, University of Stuttgart,
1985. p. 1431.
Janssen JA. Bamboo in building structures, PhD thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology, Holland, 1981.
Janssen JA. the importance of bamboo as a building material.
Bamboos current research. In: Proc of the Int Bamboo Workshop,
Kerala Forest Research InstituteIndia & IDRCCanada,
1988. p. 23541.
Lopez OH. Nuevas Tecnicas de Construcion com Bambu.
Estudios Tecnicos Colombianos Ltda 1978. [in Spanish].
Ashby MF. Materials selection in mechanical design. Oxford:
Pergamon Press; 1992.
Wegst UGK, Shercli HR, Ashby MF. The structure and
properties of bamboo as an engineering material, University of
Cambridge, UK, 1993.
Amada S. BambooA natural, super-advanced and intelligent
material. In: Proc 2nd Int Conf on Non-Conventional Construction Materials (NOCMAT-97), Bhubaneswar, India, 1997.
p. 19.
Liese W. The structure of bamboo in relation to its properties and
utilization. In: Proc Int Symposium on Industrial Use of Bamboo,
Beijing, China, 1992. p. 95100.
Ghavami K, Villela M. Coluna reforcada combambu. Course
Report, DEC/PUC-Rio, 2000 [in Portuguese].
Swamy RN, editor. New reinforced concretes, concrete technology and design, vol. 2, Blackie and Son, Glasgow, 1984.
ICBO, AC 162: Acceptance criteria for structural bamboo, ICBO
Evaluation Service Ltd., California, USA, 2000.